not quite dead yet

🔞 THIS IS AN ADULT SPACE 🔞 Courtney * she/they * aroace * 30+ writing fic and being ace and doing history Do you like custom fic? Fic Request Info! *NO exclusionists, TERFS, or nazis allowed!*

[dying-redshirt-noises]

hello friends I am not dead and I am hoping all have a very lovely holiday season!

Much has happened since I last posted here (I believe), so for a brief update of the most important things that have happened, my spouse and I bought a house in the US and then promptly moved to Germany for two years for his work 😂

I mostly went to twitter but ofc not a lot of great things there right now so maybe I’ll try to come back here more often. I’m also using Bluesky if anyone wants to find me there.

Those of you I used to message with regularly, please know that even if I wasn’t around, I thought of you often! Please feel free to message again and strike up a convo 💕

[femmchantress]

I don’t care if Monday’s yuck

Tuesday, Wednesday tread through muck

Thursday maybe eat a duck

It’s Friday, Flat as Fuck

[virgo-disaster]

Y'ALL

[ijuststareatstuffhereok89]

[53rdcenturyhero]

[willgrahamscock]

ai could never outdo my beautiful perverted mutuals

[willgrahamscock]

this is because they write with their mind penis and have terrible childhoods and horrible luck, which seems to be the key factor in writing shakespeare level smut

[willgrahamscock]

and english is their 4th language

[martindykewood]

not to sound like a christian facebook mom but some of yall need to have grace in your hearts for the people in your lives or the people you pass once on the road and never see again like you literally need to stop assuming the worst of everyone and their intentions it is poisoning your brain. you can be careful and responsible without being a miserable person. it is possible i promise

[martindykewood]

you are a tar pit and you live this way because you choose to.

[martindykewood]

honestly i have been responding to some of these replies at face value bc i do also think you have a duty as a human being to be nice to people. but if you think this post is scolding you to be nicer to people then youve already lost the plot. this post is about how assuming that everyone you meet is hostile and wants to hurt you is bad for you. it ruins your life and it is a choice you are continually making.

[warpfactor9]

sometimes data looks up at people with these big wet eyes and it's suddenly perfectly clear how he became everybody's favorite robo-boy

[spin-the-wheel-polls]

you can only do this career for the rest of your life

https://wheelofnames.com/dng-wgq

How are things going?

Great! A job I actually enjoy!

okay. I can put up with this

bad but not terrible

terrible

I don't work/results

Voting ended onApr 13

(this wheel is set in a magical world where all jobs pay enough to support yourself so this is purely about the work you do and not the money)

[slewfootwitch]

The thing about radical kindness (or any kindness, for that matter) is that there are going to be times when someone or something makes you regret it. There are going to be times when you show someone empathy and grace that they don't "deserve". There are going to be times when someone takes that kindness and uses it against you. The world doesn't magically transform into a perfect place when you decide to choose kindness and people will take advantage of it. People will continue to be shitty.

But the thing is...that's not a flaw of kindness. That's not a you problem. That's a them problem. People who are happy with themselves and their lives don't go out of their way to misuse someone's kindness or grace. The "normal" response to kindness or empathy is not to find a way to exploit it. People who are happy with themselves don't look for ways to hurt people for no reason. Kindness will never be the problem. No matter what some shitty person decides to do with it. It should go without saying not to be a doormat, yes. Don't allow people to treat you badly just for the sake of being kind. But also don't let shitty people make you bitter because of how they treated you when you were kind.

[loumandliker]

one thing about americans is that they know how to make a fucking milkshake

[loumandliker]

i hate the stupid milk consistency shit you get here like if you give me a milkshake it better be rock fucking solid. i want that thang thick like concrete. it should piss me off trying to drink it through a straw. i should have to wait for it to thaw

[caltracat]

[behindnightmaresanddreams]

Americans are so good at making Beverage. One of our Foundational Moments was actually a party involving Making Beverage. Google "Boston Tea Party" for more

[supreme-leader-stoat]

[pastelispunx]

My emotions about space travel, and the history of, are strong today.

[kosmogrl]

[mikanseinic]

“how to recognize AI in fanfic” — hey so this is another not-gentle reminder that AI stole from us. it’s using OUR words and OUR sentences and OUR styles.

writing “long” paragraphs is not a sign of AI — it’s a common narrative choice many writers make both in fanfiction and in traditionally published novels, and AI stole it from us.

using an em dash is not a sign of AI. it’s a stylistic sentence choice that’s been an option in place of commas and semicolons for a very long time, and AI stole it from us.

long sentence structures are not a sign of AI, but are yet another stylistic choice writers often make to create a cadence and tone that mimics the flow of poetry, and AI stole it from us.

“YA narrative breaks”? i don’t even know what the fuck this means, but i can guarantee that AI stole it from us.

italics are once again a stylistic choice that many writers love to use to create emphasis, and it’s a more stylistically acceptable and traditional form of emphasis than bold or underline text. oh, and just to be extra clear: AI STOLE IT FROM US.

stop creating fandom witch hunts over AI when you know fuck all about what it means to sit and write a story, and to spend hours fiddling with sentence structure and dialogue to get the exact right tone. writers will stop writing out of fear that their work “sounds like AI” — IT DOESNT! AI STOLE FROM US! AI SOUNDS LIKE US! — and after a while, all that will be available on AO3 is shitty AI-generated fanfiction.

because yeah, people are going to continue to use AI to write fanfiction whether you “call them out” or not. but making a laughable thread on X that uses asinine criteria is not going to fix that problem. it will just push the real writers out because people will accuse them of using AI when they haven’t, and they will (rightfully) stop writing for spaces that attack them.

anyway. fuck ai.

[ultra-violence-blog]

Engraved Zippo lighters from the Vietnam War.

~ Cowan’s Auctions

[awakefor48hours]

Not just "fuck ICE" but also "love immigrants"

[awakefor48hours]

ICE is a domestic terrorist group that promotes behaviors similar to literal slave catchers and nazis that needs to be stopped yesterday.

and

Immigrants are human beings who deserve no more or less love than anyone else on the planet.

[stovetop00-deactivated20230907]

We’re winning.

[lilnasxvevo]

I found his bio on societyofpresidentialdescendants.org and it was so delightful I had to copy paste the whole thing:

“Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave it to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale (BA, 1977), and was trained to be a museum curator in the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in American Material Culture (MA, 1980). A decorative arts curator at the Newark Museum for thirty-seven years before he retired, Ulysses has never stopped writing for the sheer pleasure of it. Aside from books on Victorian furniture, art pottery, studio ceramics, jewelry, and the White House, Ulysses created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel, appeared in 2012. His most recent novel, Cliffhanger, was released by JMS Books in December 2020.

“Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of 45 years. They have two grown children, adopted in 1996.

“Ulysses is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant. His late mother, Julia, was the President’s last living great-grandchild; youngest daughter of Ulysses S. Grant III, and granddaughter of the president’s eldest son, Frederick. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City. He is also on the board of the U.S. Grant Presidential Library and Museum at Mississippi State University.”

[wakingfromthewater]

And frankly, the novels sound like they slap:

Desmond was nominated for a Lambda Award.

[doctorscienceknowsfandom]

“With his husband of 45 years.” You kids don’t know ... they got together before AIDS, at the peak of the Gay Glam Life. They stayed together as their generation died around them, and made through it to the point where they could marry and have a legal family. He looks like a chipper preppie who never had a serious thought or care in the world, but it took *incredible* determination, commitment, and also luck to get here.

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

having now read the first of this man's vampire books, you can absolutely tell that he cares a lot about historical furniture because oh my god he really wanted to tell us about all the historical furniture in this vampire's house. material culture as foreplay. seduction via theses about chairs

[dyscomancer]

[yamelcakes]

things I learned from community members recently:

ICE is tapping into Bluetooth. Turn off Bluetooth if you are observing.

ICE is following ambulances so they can arrest people at the hospital. At this point, it is safer for people at risk to be driven to the hospital by community members.

ICE might back off if you threaten to call 911. The relationship between local law enforcement and ICE is extremely tense right now. ICE agents are cowards and will usually slink off if they know local law enforcement is watching. They know Minnesota will prosecute them if Dems regain political power.

Likewise, if you are being tailed by ICE head to your local police station or other public space with many cameras. Do NOT drive home under any circumstances. Heard directly from folks that they are being stalked by ICE and ICE will make an “I’m watching you” gesture when they find them at their homes.

Choose between delivering items to people who can’t leave their homes OR observing ICE. Do NOT do both. If you are identified while observing, ICE will log your license plate and track you to the people you are trying to help.

Far right agitators are on the ground. Stay safe.

[thewellofastarael]

In general, you should keep bluetooth, location and wifi off unless you're actively using them. There's no point in making that data/connectivity available for the taking.